The Fountain of Youth Chapter 2: An Enemy Unknown
by Facerockker
Summary: Welcome to the Fountain of Youth, a story series set up in chapters like the manga. Join Izumi Ito, a member of the black ops, as she investigates political turmoil whilst the world is in the throes of unrest and discovers what's happening outside the war.


Chapter 2 is here! Please enjoy. Leave some reviews - I'd love feedback!

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The mighty Land of Lightning provides next to no protection from the unforgiving sun. As the land stretches west, mountains of sand ebb and flow like the ocean. Heat rises from the earth, a droning silence covering the world like a blanket.

A young girl tromps through the desert, kicking up waves of sand behind her. Sweat glistens on her fair colored skin as the harsh sunlight beats down on her unprotected body. She carries with her only a pack on her shoulders, a lengthy blade strapped underneath it, slapping her back with each step. Her face lies hidden under a decorative porcelain mask her skin hot underneath it.

Izumi sprints across the desert, the sun showering her with overwhelming heat. She races against time in an attempt to get to the border by sundown, a trip that takes a normal shinobi at least a full day to make. There _was _a reason she was chosen for such a mission. Her practically limitless stamina and her peerless agility made her the perfect ninja for the job. Still, Izumi felt the burden of the journey. She was quite a ways off from her destination and with no landmarks in such a blank land it was nearly impossible to figure out her location. She knew she had to rely on her sheer speed and a bit of luck to make it on time.

Overhead, vultures flood the sky, hungry for their next kill. They too cannot hide from the harsh sun. The young girl shoots across the sand below them. All around her, nothing but glittering gold waves of sand glittering in the sunlight.

The girl speeds across the sand, taking each step in stride as she tries to conserve her stamina the best she can. Her breaths are long and slow, quick and short, an age old trick she learned going through her training in the black ops. Breathe in for three steps, breathe out for two steps. Izumi gazes up at the sun, but finds it nearly impossible to discern how close she was to the border.

Suddenly, Izumi feels the sand loosen underneath her. For a brief instant she is weightless as the world sinks beneath her. With split second timing she throws herself into the air, leaping backwards and landing on her feet. In the spot where Izumi was standing a sinkhole appears, a bottomless pit of suffocating sand. "What the…?"

"You should turn back, kunoichi." The voice came from the side. To the left of Izumi appears a cloaked man in dark cape that flicked in the wind. His black hair is a frizzled mat soaked from sweat. He wears a crooked headband with a symbol unknown to the girl. Without another word the stranger pulls a knife and made a quick upwards slash into the girl's gut, sinking his blade into her flesh.

The man grinned. Then, before him, Izumi's body explodes into a pure white cloud with a loud _POOF_. "What?" he exclaims, startled, spreading his feet as he expects a counterattack.

"You should never let your guard down, you know." From the guise of the cloud Izumi reappears. She pulls her sword and in the blink of an eye sweeps it downwards, cutting with such precision that she strikes the weapon from her assailant's hand, sending it far to the side. The man grimaces and draws another knife.

The stranger takes another jab at the girl, but Izumi easily deflects it with her sword. "Kunoichi of the sand, is it?" He takes a step to Izumi's right. The girl mirrors his movements. "I've heard a lot about you," he says, thrusting with his knife. Izumi parries the attack with a quick flick of the wrist, swiping her sword, and then spins it around and drives the man back with the hilt.

"Yes, and you're an amateur," Izumi replies calmly. She forces the bottom of her sword upwards, bashing the man's chin with the hilt. She then thrusts her sword downwards towards the ground, but her target had already backed away. By the time Izumi looks up, the man was starting to form hand seals. Before she can react she watches the attacker sink into the sand melting away into nothingness. Izumi grips the hilt of her sword as she's suddenly pitched forward, stumbling as the ground begins shifting underneath her. The earth in front of her begins churning rapidly in a circle, drawing her towards the middle, the sand frothing.

Izumi stumbles forward, hoisting her sword. She tries digging her heels into the ground but to no avail as she is steadily sucked into the massive sinkhole forming in front of her. Izumi doesn't panic, though. In fact, she had a feeling she knew just what to do. Leaping into the air, Izumi thrusts her hand forward and hurls her sword into the middle of the sinkhole. Then, she begins preforming hand seals in midair. _Ox, Rat, Ram, Boar, Dog, Ram – Lightning Release: Surge of Lightning! _Throwing her hands forward, Izumi shoots out a blue streak of lightning that coils through the air with a hiss. It blasts the impaled sword and explodes with a loud _ZAP!_ scattering sand in every direction. Izumi lands on the other side of the crater, spinning on her heel.

Izumi watches as the sinkhole disperses, the sand raising back up to its normal state. The girl's mysterious attacker kneels on the ground, panting. "How… how did you…"

"What? Overcome your Antlion Technique?" Izumi guessed, walking up to the man. His dark skin was marred with scorch marks. "Simple. Lightning travels through earth and breaks it apart easily. Your skill was no match for mine." The man glances up at the girl, expecting her to finish him off, but Izumi only retrieves her sword from the sand and sheathes it on her back. "Now, let's talk about why you attacked me, hmm?"

Cornered and desperate, the thug brandishes his knife. "Never!" he yells, thrusting weakly at the girl. Izumi sidesteps and kicks the weapon out of the man's hand, sending it spinning into the air, snatching it with her hand. She points the blade at him, leveling the end with his neck. The stranger stumbles back and gulps, but Izumi simply raises the knife and taps the tip against his metal headband.

"I've never seen that symbol before," Izumi muses quietly to herself as she scrapes the knife against the man's forehead protector, causing a harsh screeching sound. "Tell me, why would some unknown shinobi be so reckless as to attack an ANBU member in the middle of her mission?" she asks.

"We spit on you and your _alliance_, kunoichi," the man spits, trying to crawl away from Izumi and her knife as it inches ever closer. "You should turn back now. You won't get anywhere."

Sliding the tip of her finger into the hole at the end of her knife and spinning the blade, Izumi presses the weapon to the side of the man's neck, sliding it against his skin. "This knife of yours? It's nestled up against your jugular. One quick cut and it's lights out for you. Your name, now."

The man quivers on the ground. "Y-Yotamono! It's Yotamono!" he cries desperately, scrambling to get away.

"Good boy," Izumi says dryly, dropping the knife onto the shaking man. "Now get out of here, before I change my mind." Shaking his head vigorously, Yotamono begins clumsily crawling backwards in the sand. As he tries scuttling away Izumi walks up to him, staring down at the man. She reaches and rips the headband off Yotamono's forehead, stuffing it into her backpack. "Go!" The man yelps, stumbling to his feet and trudging through the sand as he runs from the young girl.

Underneath her mask, Izumi grunts quietly. To be attacked unprovoked so close to her own home was strange enough as it is. But to be attacked without precedence by a shinobi from a mysterious village? That was practically unheard of. Izumi knew she should have dispatched the attacker without hesitation, but she needed more information about her new enemy. Thankfully, this Yotamono fellow seemed to be pretty loose lipped – a hired amateur, no doubt. It was clear that whoever he was associated with, they were openly opposed to the Great Shinobi Alliance, which meant it was likely he was part of some sort of rogue group unrelated to the five great nations.

The identity of this new enemy would have to be put aside, though, as Izumi's scuffle with the thug lasted longer than she expected. Taking off suddenly Izumi kicks up a cloud of sand burying the forgotten knife as she runs west. The sun blazes overhead in the sky, signaling the middle of the day.

Far ahead, the arid deserts dwindle, giving way to a rocky forest that lines the border in the distance. Taking in a deep breath and letting it out slowly, Izumi places her hands together, only her first two fingers lining up against each other. _Thunder Step!_

First, a shiver jolts down the girl's spine. The hair on the back of her neck begins to rise. An air of energy hums in a shroud around her. She takes one step quicker than before. Then another. And then another – soon, Izumi's entire body vibrates with vibrant electricity, chakra sparking off her. She thunders through the sand with extraordinary speed, the world turning into blurred streaks of gold and blue. Time slows down as the wind whistles past her ears and tears at her hair.

It's not long before Izumi nears the border between the Village Hidden in the Clouds and the Village Hidden in Frost. The temporary burst of energy burns off as Izumi slows down to her normal speed. Her skin sizzles in the dry air. Before her the earth gives way to green and white trees that dot the land. A low-lying fence quietly marks off the bounds of her village's territory. It was here she was to meet the envoy as part of her mission.

The sun hangs low in the sky. Despite the help of her Thunder Step technique, Izumi knows it is only a matter of time before the agent would be there to greet her at the border. As she gets closer to the rendezvous point, Izumi feels a considerable dip in the temperature. Frost lines leathery leaves of the trees. Her breath molds into wispy clouds as she trudges through thin slush. Although she had always lived near the border of the Village Hidden in the Frost, Izumi still wasn't used to the cold.

All around her, songbirds hum their melodies high in the branches. The air is heavy and still, different and yet somehow still similar to the desert. Izumi's footsteps crunch in the frost on the forest floor.

Suddenly, off to her right, the young girl hears a sound. Her hand instinctively reaches for her sword but she stays her blade, inching slowly towards the source of the noise. Izumi carefully pushes past frozen boughs that hang from the trees making her way deeper into the woods. The air chills her exposed skin, nipping at her. She holds her breath.

"You're late." The voice comes from above. A large figure materializes in front of Izumi with a quick _swish_. The man stands tall, his head cocked as an enormous sword rests on his shoulder. His face is partially obscured by a featherlike collar attached to his dark blue vest, the sleeves missing, exposing his bulging muscles. His loose black pants end at the calf where white bandages snake their way down his leg. The man – adorned with metal piercings all over his face – tilts his head to the side. "Well? That's not like you."

Equal parts surprised and excited Izumi exclaims, "Hizoku." The man smirks. Izumi eases off the hilt of her sword and extends her hand, stepping forward. The two clasp together tightly for a moment.

"Trouble on the way?" Hizoku asks. His voice was deep and quiet, rumbling with assertion.

"You could say that," Izumi hints. "I ran into some nonsense clown as soon as I left the village. He attacked almost immediately, but he was just some amateur," she adds. "One thing was for sure, though, he was pretty opposed to the idea of the Great Shinobi Alliance."

Hizoku grunts. If he was surprised, he didn't show it.

Izumi continues, "There's something else. He wore a forehead protector I've never seen before." The girl reaches a hand behind her and pulls out the headband in question. "Ever seen anything like it?" she asks, tossing it to Hizoku.

The man studies the headband for a moment. The metal was etched with a symbol that can only be described as a vertical, rounded rectangle with a slightly flat top and bottom, with two more of each shape on either side. "Never seen it," Hizoku admits, throwing the headband back at Izumi, who catches it and puts in her pack. "Looks a bit like a couple village symbols that got morphed together, though."

"I know," Izumi sighs. "Think we got a group of upstarts that want to make their own village?" she asks.

"I don't know," Hizoku says, starting to turn. "But that'll have to wait. Let's go."

Izumi nods. "Right." She takes a step forward, walking in tandem with her partner. "Where are we going anyway?"

"I'll tell you on the way. C'mon."


End file.
